Iran on Sunday commissioned its second domestically built submarine, a craft that can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously, state-run radio reported.

The report said the submarine, named Ghadir, was Iran's second homemade submarine, and was unveiled during the third day of military maneuvers in southern Iran.

Iran's armed forces began their biggest military maneuvers Friday in the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean on Iran's territorial waters close to Pakistan and involved submarines, warships, missiles, jet fighters and gunships.

In May, Iran officially launched the production of the locally built submarine, claiming it was a stealth craft.

Its name, Ghadir, is derived from a site in the Arabian Peninsula holy to Shiite Muslims, the overwhelming majority of Iran's 69 million people.

Iran produces the Shahab-3 missile, capable of reaching Israel and U.S. forces stationed in the region. Since 1992, it also has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.

"I don't think our military analysts are laughing. They may have chuckled in the first few seconds after seeing it, but they know the potential for destruction one of these things has."

Of course they know the score and are planning for every contingency. We should have complete confidence in our military(I do). A few laughs are good for the soul however. It's one of the best things about hanging out around here.

The Littoral Zone is the area from the beach to about 600 ft. (100 fathoms, or 183 meters) of water.

Imagine trying to perform submarine operations, or even surface naval ops there. Bathymetry may be changeable and complex. Fresh, brackish, and salt water masses may be present and mixing (which would significantly complicate sonar interpretation). Turbidity may mask visual sightings from the air as well.

It is an environment especially well suited to shallow draft, fast, maneuverable vessels, and can provide a significant home turf advantage.

Small, quiet subs which can lay doggo in the right places and fast gunboats/missile boats would be especially well suited to fight in this environment.

Survivability might be low, but the emphasis is on destroying superior forces with lesser vessels(--right up a jihadi's alley).

Air power can be a decisive factor.

All things being equal, though, I guess it would be the equivalent of a bar room brawl on a school bus, driving in and out of darkened tunnels.

Thanks for the info. So this submarine is not something that could make it to our shores with a nuke and would be used mainly for a defense of their own waters? Just curious how far this sub could travel.

I doubt it would have the fuel capacity to make it to North America without a tender. Even the U boats rendezvoused with submarine tenders or specially modified 'milch cow' submarines to take on fuel and supplies.

Interesting. The Iranians have built themselves a terrorist transporter. Judging by its size and color, it's not meant to venture out much past the Straits of Hormuz.

Doubt it has much offensive punch. If it does have torpedo tubes, I'd be surprised if it has more than two. Tube-loaded missiles are probably not an option. I doubt it has an ejection pump to push a rocket clear of the hull. Also looks like it needs to be surfaced to fire that little launcher on the forward deck.

It's a problem for the merchant traffic that flows in and out of the Gulf. Not so much for warships, but stranger things have happened. Recall that Iran has recently deployed surface-to-surface missiles in the straits as well. Something is going to have to be done soon. Iran must not posess the ability to shut down the Persian Gulf.

111
posted on 01/15/2006 7:12:45 AM PST
by Doohickey
(If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice...I will choose freewill.)

I'll take a stab at it. I took as good of a look as I can at it, and it seems like it is designed more for a littoral role ( coastal- near coastal) than a deep ocean role.

Visibly, it has a snorkel mast, radar, vhf or uhf radio antennae, and periscope. The sail looks to be kind of cheaply built, and the superstructure appears to be built over the pressure hull.

I couldnt figure out what the round barrel shaped assembly was that appears to be welded to the forward deck, but it looks a lot like a life raft cannister.

I cannot see any weapons systems visible, but that doesnt mean it doesnt have any. They may have the torpedos arranged external to the hull or carry them internally, depending on space. They may also have shoulder fired weapons for self defense stowed inside the vessel.

My bet would be on it being a copy of some type of a North Korean mini-submarine design. They probably will use it for personnel insertion/extraction, shipping attacks in coastal or near coastal waters, and intel gathering. I dont think it is useful or well designed enough to operate in the deep water arena

112
posted on 01/15/2006 7:42:10 AM PST
by judicial meanz
(Progressive liberals and Stalinists; tell me exactly where they are different in their beliefs?)

What is the cylindrical object on the deck forward of the sail? Is this the "missile" referenced in the article? It looks too small to contain a useful anti-ship missile such as the Exocet.

Maybe they adapted something smaller they already have in their inventory (Maverick or TOW?) to fire from a waterproof canister attached externally to the sub. A launcher for unguided rockets is another possibility. The North Koreans use a lot of unguided rockets on small surface ships.

This sub would certainly have to surface to fire such a weapon making it very vulnerable. I suspect talk of a missiles is Iranian disinformation: Torpedoes or mines would be far more effective.

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